Smoothly steerable roller skate

ABSTRACT

A steerable roller skate includes: a sole member of a roller skate having a pair of rear wheels transversely rotatably secured to a rear bottom portion of the sole member, a steering base steerably secured on a front bottom portion of the sole member, a pair of front wheels transversely rotatably secured on the steering base, a first magnet secured on a central bottom portion of the sole member, a second magnet secured on the steering base adjacent to the first magnet having opposite magnetic polarities of the first and second magnets for normally attracting the second magnet to the first magnet, and a non-magnetic spacer either formed on a bottom surface of the first magnet, or formed on an upper surface of the second magnet for spacing or separating the two magnets for smoothly steering the roller skate.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

U.S. Pat. No. 6,926,290 issued to the same inventor disclosed amagnetically-restored steerable roller skate. However, it has thefollowing drawbacks:

-   1. When installing or adjusting the second magnet 4 b to the first    magnet 4 a, a strong magnetic force between the two magnets 4 a, 4 b    will instantly attract the two magnets with each other to thereby    increase the difficulty for defining or adjusting an aperture    between the two magnets.-   2. When the two magnets are automatically restored and attracted    during roller skating, the strong attractive force existing between    the two magnets will attract the two magnets closely to thereby    affect the next biasing movement either rightwardly or leftwardly.-   3. During the skating, the vibrations may cause impact of the second    magnet on the first magnet to damage the magnets, especially when    the aperture between the two magnets is very small.

The present inventor has found the drawbacks of the prior art andinvented the present smoothly steerable roller skate.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The object of the present invention is to provide a steerable rollerskate including: a sole member of a skate boot or fastening strap ofroller skate having a pair of rear wheels transversely rotatably securedto a rear bottom portion of the sole member, a steering base steerablysecured on a front bottom portion of the sole member, a pair of frontwheels transversely rotatably secured on the steering base, a firstmagnet secured on a central bottom portion of the sole member, and asecond magnet secured on the steering base adjacent to the first magnethaving opposite magnetic polarities of the first and second magnets fornormally attracting the second magnet to the first magnet with a greatermagnetic attractive force between the first and second magnets forefficiently magnetically restoring the steering base and the frontwheels for automatically resetting a straightforward orientation of theroller skate; with a non-magnetic spacer, either formed on a bottomsurface of the first magnet or formed on an upper surface of the secondmagnet, for helping separating the two magnets.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an illustration showing a roller skate of the presentinvention.

FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

As shown in FIGS. 1, 2, a preferred embodiment of the roller skate ofthe present invention comprises: a sole member 1 of a skate boot orfastening strap 11 of a roller skate defining a longitudinal axis 10 ata longitudinal center of the sole member 1, a steering means 2 steerablysecured to a front bottom portion of the sole member 1, a pair of frontwheels 3 rotatably transversely secured on the steering means 2 by afront axle 31, a pair of rear wheels 5 rotatably transversely secured toa rear bottom portion of the sole member 1, a first magnet 4 a securedon a central bottom portion 12 of the sole member 1, a second magnet 4 bsecured on the steering means 2, and a non-magnetic spacer 6 formed on abottom of the first magnet 4 a for partitioning the two magnets 4 a, 4b. The pair of rear wheels 5 is rotatably secured on a rear axle 51,generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis 10 of the sole member1.

The steering means 2 includes: a steering base 25 having a front baseportion 25 a drilled with a vertical bolt hole for rotatably engaging afront bolt 21 vertically secured in a front bottom portion of the solemember 1 about a front vertical axis 20, an axle hole horizontallytransversely formed through a middle portion of the steering base 25 forrotatably engaging a front axle 31 for rotatably securing the pair offront wheels 3 on the steering base 25, and a rear extension portion 25f formed on a rear portion of the steering base 25. The vertical axis 20of the bolt 21 is projectively perpendicular to the longitudinal axis 10of the sole member 1.

The first magnet 4 a is fixed to the central bottom portion 12 of thesole member 1 having a magnetic polarity of the first magnet 4 aopposite to a magnetic polarity of the second magnet 4 b secured on therear extension portion 25 f of the steering base 25 for a mutualmagnetic attraction between the first and second magnets 4 a, 4 b.

Either the first magnet 4 a or the second magnet 4 b may be formed as acircular shape with same or different diameters to increase theirmagnetic attraction force since the circular magnet may have a volume orarea larger than a slim rectangular-shaped magnet.

The non-magnetic spacer 6 as spaced between the first magnet 4 a and thesecond magnet 4 b may be made from non-magnetic materials, including:stainless steel, plastic, wood, glass or other non-magnetic or nonferrous magnetic materials.

The spacer 6 may include a plurality of stainless steel balls, secured,bonded or welded to the bottom of the first magnet 4 a.

Such stainless steel balls 6 may be circularly formed on the bottom ofthe first magnet 4 a about a center C of the first magnet 4 a.

Alternationly, the non-magnetic spacer 6 may also be formed on an upperportion or upper surface of the second magnet 4 b to be adjacent to thefirst magnet 4 a.

Due to the spacing by the non-magnetic spacer 6 of the presentinvention, there may be provided with the following advantages:

-   1. When the two magnets 4 a, 4 b are automatically restored by the    strong mutual magnetic attraction force existing therebetween, the    non-magnetic spacer 6 may slightly reduce such a strong magnetic    attraction force in order for smoothing a next biasing movement    either rightwardly or leftwardly when changing the skating    directions.-   2. For installing or adjusting the second magnet 4 b to approach the    first magnet 4 a, the spacer 6 may serve as a “washer” or a    “partition” between the two magnets 4 a, 4 b, without worrying about    their too close mutual magnetic attraction.-   3. The spacer 6, especially when made as stainless steel balls, may    serve as a bearing for smoothly moving the two magnets 4 a, 4 b when    overcoming their mutual magnetic attraction.-   4. The spacer 6 may also serve as a buffer for dampening the impact    between the two magnets 4 a, 4 b especially when vibrated during the    roller skating movements, thereby protecting the magnets.

So, the present invention is superior to the prior art of U.S. Pat. No.6,926,290.

The spacer 6 may be formed as balls as illustrated, or may be formed asa ring, or any other shapes to be spaced in between the two magnets 4 a,4 b. The shapes and arrangements of the spacer or spacers 6 on themagnet 4 a or 4 b are not limited in the present invention.

The bottom portion of the sole member 1 and the steering base 25 may bemade of non-ferrous materials for preventing loss of magnetic propertyof the magnets 4 a, 4 b.

The steering base 25 further includes a limiting projection 25 dprotruding upwardly from a central portion of the steering base 25 to beretarded by a pair of stoppers 29 respectively disposed on opposite sideportions on a front bottom portion of the sole member 1 to preventfalling off of a skate player when rightwardly or leftwardly steering aroller skate of the present invention.

The first magnet 4 a, when magnetically restored, has a center alignedwith the longitudinal axis 10 of the sole member 1. The second magnet 4b, as secured on the steering base 25, is separated from the firstmagnet 4 a as partitioned by the spacer 6 to define the aperture Abetween the first and second magnets 4 a, 4 b.

The circular shape of the magnet 4 a or 4 b may also be modified to beother shapes.

The fixing or joining methods for securing the two magnets on the skatemay be further modified and not limited in this invention.

Upon a skating by a player, the front wheels 3 may be biased sidewardlyas shown in FIG. 2 to forcibly move the second magnet 4 b from the firstmagnet 4 a for deviating the skating direction from a straightforwarddirection aligned with the longitudinal axis 10 to a sidewardorientation as shown in the arrow direction in FIG. 2.

Then, the player lifts his foot for a next skating step, the magneticattraction between the two magnets 4 a, 4 b will automatically restorethe steering base 25 to allow the front axis 31 to be perpendicular tothe longitudinal axis 10 of the sole member for resetting astraightforward direction, ready for next biasing movement eitherrightwardly or leftwardly.

The present invention may, for instance, be modified without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the invention.

1. A steerable roller skate comprising: a sole member having alongitudinal axis defined at a central portion thereof and having a pairof rear wheels transversely rotatably secured to a rear bottom portionof said sole member, a steering means having a steering base steerablysecured to a front bottom portion of said sole member, a pair of frontwheels transversely rotatably secured to the steering base of saidsteering means by a front axle, a first magnet secured to a centralbottom portion of said sole member, a second magnet secured on saidsteering base normally positioned under said first magnet, said firstand second magnets having opposite magnetic polarities thereof for amutual magnetic attraction between said first and second magnets fornormally restoring the steering base and the front wheels to allow saidfront axle to be projectively perpendicular to said longitudinal axis ofsaid sole member for a normal straightforward skating of said rollerskate; and a non-magnetic spacer either formed on a bottom surface ofsaid first magnet, or formed on an upper surface of said second magnetto help separation of said first magnet from said second magnet asspaced by said non-magnetic spacer.
 2. A steerable roller skateaccording to claim 1, wherein said non-magnetic spacer is made ofnon-magnetic materials, and formed, secured, bonded, or welded on asurface of one said magnet to be spaced or separated from the other saidmagnet.
 3. A roller skate according to claim 1, wherein saidnon-magnetic spacer includes a plurality of stainless steel ballscircularly formed on a bottom surface of said first magnet, or formed onan upper surface of said second magnet.
 4. A roller skate according toclaim 1, wherein said non-magnetic spacer is a non-magnetic ringcircularly formed on a surface of one said magnet to be spaced andseparated from the other said magnet.
 5. A roller skate according toclaim 1, wherein each said magnet is formed as a circular magnet.